Ready for disruption: Data monetisation

04 Oct 2017

Analytics

Data

Big data about companies and their customers is everywhere, and it’s getting bigger. Reports suggest that the world creates 2.5 quintillion bytes (2.5 million terabytes) of data per day – and that 90 percent of the world’s data was created in the last two years alone.

Widespread adoption of big-data systems, Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and devices, and new digital systems are leaving businesses awash in more data than they have ever had before. But with just 0.5 percent of data actually analysed for business decision making, many businesses are spending so much time and money trying to store and manage it that they’re missing out on the insights that data contains.

Users of big-data analytics tools have long known that it can improve operational visibility, optimise the delivery of internal services, and help companies engage better with their customers. However, few companies recognise that their data has additional value – either by using it to shape new revenuegenerating services, or by selling it to third parties that are willing to pay for the insight it provides.

Gartner, which predicted that 30 percent of businesses would be monetising their data by last year, calls the practice ‘infonomics’ – and it has caught on as companies like Accenture lay out frameworks to guide the pricing and utilisation of data assets.

Implementing those frameworks requires attention to a broad range of factors including data storage; security; privacy and intellectual property; analysis techniques; dissemination; and access. Each of these disciplines is challenging on its own, but taken as a whole they reflect the significant challenge that data monetisation presents.

That challenge is compounded by the lack of skilled data scientists with the competencies to massage new insights out of existing data, and manage the flood of data from cloud services, new monitoring and artificial intelligence-driven tools, and IoT devices.

If businesses can find the skills and tools they need to unlock the benefits of the data they produce, the potential rewards – and competitive advantages – are significant. But if they fail to address the key aspects of data monetisation, the result will be one missed opportunity after another